Bow down and follow your leader's wishes Les and Leckstrom. You are apparently not running for re-election anyway so it's no skin off your noses. Which leaves Foster as the likely fly in the ointment all along and left holding the bag.

AND..."This is a complete flip flop from January 7th, when Christy's brand new Conservative Communications Director Ben Chin told the Canadian Press that Christy will not "embroil herself in the decision-making process of an independent legislative committee". Hmmmm....what's changed?"

Premier Christy Clark announces Wednesday that she is looking to extend the term of auditor general from six to eight years and limit holders of the office to a single term.

After returning from vacation — during which time the Liberals proved they can screw up even when she’s not around — Premier Christy Clark had to perform a tricky bit of business:

Cave in on the politically idiotic decision to fire auditor-general John Doyle, but make it look like she’s not really caving in.

...snip...

The New Democrats have had a field day, accusing the Liberals of sacking Doyle because he’s been so tough on the government.

The Liberals played further into the NDP’s hands by refusing to offer even a single reason Doyle was being let go, citing parliamentary secrecy.

Then came the revelation that the Liberal chair of the committee that gassed Doyle had been personally cited by the auditor in a recent investigation of constituency-office spending.

Throw in that Doyle’s in the middle of an investigation of the government’s malodorous decision to pay $6 million to the lawyers of former insiders accused of corruption in the B.C. Rail scandal, and the Liberals had a political disaster on their hands.

For many voters I’ve heard from, the decision to dump such an effective watchdog on the government was the last straw. The Liberals were getting destroyed on this, with the May election looming.

Clark needed to stop the bleeding. No surprise she climbed down, though I doubt the clever way she tried to disguise it will help much.

The damage has already been done to the Liberals by their foolish and arrogant handling of this. Now it will be interesting to see if Doyle accepts the premier’s rather desperate “invitation” to stay.

Foster's committee is supposed to be addressing the situation today I undedrstand. If they make a decision it will probably be one of those late Friday after business hours press releases designed to escape the notice of most people and get buried by the media by Monday.

Nab

Edit to add: Whoops, looks like they played the Liberal "kick the can down the road" with the decision...

VERNON, B.C. - Any decision on the future of B.C.'s auditor general has been delayed by an all-party legislative committee until at least next week.

The committee met briefly Friday and its chair, Vernon Liberal MLA Eric Foster, says the issue was put off until Tuesday when the committee meets again.

[UPDATED] A secretive committee of MLAs reversed a decision today to oust Auditor General John Doyle from office, and is recommending he get two more years in office. But it’s unclear if Doyle will accept the terms or walk away from the job.

VICTORIA — There were sighs of relief from various quarters in the provincial capital this week at the news that Auditor General John Doyle will be quitting B.C. when his term runs out later this year to take up a similar post in his native Australia.

When politicians and public servants complained about running afoul of “Australian rules,” in recent years, they weren’t talking football. Rather it was their perception that Doyle was once again imposing his own arbitrary way of doing things.

B.C. Liberal MLA Kevin Krueger spoke for a lot of his colleagues and more than a few public servants in his recent comment to the Kamloops Daily News: “The guy is rude and arrogant and wrong sometimes, but he won’t admit it. I don’t think he carries on the respectful way an auditor general should.”

Nor will the Opposition be entirely crushed that Doyle is returning to home base in a huff, apparently a favourite mode of transportation.

The New Democrats get to reap the political reward from the Liberals having driven out the independent financial watchdog. They can also take comfort that if they form the next government, Doyle won’t be around to make their lives miserable.

Granted, Doyle was not always as deferential as he could have been. His prickliness made it hard for even well-intentioned public servants to accept his recommendations. “John is his own worst enemy,” as one who knows him remarked recently, “but only just that.”

But there were also times, when in the pursuit of the larger public interest, he treated the politicians with as much respect as they deserved, meaning little or none.

John Doyle reporting last summer on the way the legislature keeps its own accounts: “If the legislative assembly were a public company, it would be delisted.”

I’d also cite his bold decision, taken just days after the notorious $6-million waiver of legal fees in the BC Rail case, to audit the government practice of providing publicly funded counsel to politicians, public servants and staffers in a variety of legal proceedings.

Though he was stymied in obtaining some material controlled by the defence lawyers, Doyle did get considerable documentation from the government. One can only hope he reports on what he knows before the election.

His most far-reaching contribution was when he waded into the BC Hydro accounts and blew the whistle on the growing practice of deferring current spending for repayment in future years.

Doyle chronicled how deferrals have grown from a single account when the Liberals took office to almost 30 currently, and from a balance of tens of millions en route to a projected $5 billion.

He also accused the Liberals of using the deferrals to tart up the balance sheet at Hydro, thereby justifying the government’s successive cash grabs: “It seems to me that the sole purpose of this whole exercise is so that a dividend can be paid to the province.”

Moreover, Doyle reported, there was no discernible plan to retire all the deferrals and square up the accounts.

That accusation provoked a memorable exchange at the legislature public accounts committee in November 2011, when the Hydro brass were summoned to respond to Doyle’s accusations with the auditor general himself in the room.

“We could provide a plan about all our deferral accounts to the auditor general,” huffed Charles Reid, then Hydro’s chief financial officer and today its CEO. “Whether he would accept the logic and rationale is entirely up to him.”

Doyle fired back that his staff had repeatedly asked for such a plan, yet none had been produced: “I would have thought that if there was a plan, I would have it in my hand.”

Rising to the moment, Doyle went on to advise that the target of his complaint was not Hydro in any event, but rather the government and its continued reliance on deferral accounts to justify its cash grabs from Hydro.

Eventually the full $5 billion would somehow have to be paid back. “This rat-in-the-snake type of situation,” he called it, summoning a memorable image. “It’s a big bump that’s going to be there for a long time as it gets digested.”

By way of accomplishing the digestion process, Doyle offered three possibilities.

Hydro could try to make up the difference by rationalizing operations, though as Doyle noted, “$5 billion is a lot of money to recover from an operation that doesn’t turn over more than $4 billion a year,”

Or the government could reverse the siphon and begin returning cash to Hydro from its own accounts, an unlikely scenario.

Or the government could direct Hydro to make “rate adjustments.” Meaning rate increases, and mighty big ones, given the need to offset $5 billion worth of deferrals.

“I can’t think of another option that you would use,” Doyle observed. “So what’s the choice?”

Major cuts in operations. Cash from the province. Or rate increases. What’s the choice?

The question is still hanging there, no less than when Doyle asked it, no less for the current government than the next one.

John Doyle is heading back to Australia. But the problem he identified as the rat-in-the-snake will likely be with us for a long time.